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Jtetter things ll)cm tXJar, 


A 


DISCOURSE 


DELIVERED AT 


THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN FAIR HAVEN, 


ON THE 


ANNUAL THANKSGIVING OF 1847. 

y 

By REV. BURDETT HART. 



NEW HAVEN: 

PECK & STAFFORD, PRINTERS. 


1847. 






PREFATORY NOTE. 


Having set forth some views of the origin and results of the existing War with 
Mexico, I have been requested to furnish the following discourse as a kind of sup- 
plement to what was before advanced. Among the crowding duties of my life, the 
same causes which led to its rapid production do now forbid any particular revision of it. 

It is important that, at the present juncture, right opinions should not only be pre¬ 
sented to the minds of the people, but that they should be presented in such a form 
that they can be the materials for prolonged reflection ; for the manner in which 
this war is regarded—the sentiments which we are now led to entertain in respect 
to the mission and destiny of this country—will no doubt controll our course for the 
future. If the citizens of all our thriving towns and villages can be led to the proper 
exercise of their sovereignty, we need not be overmuch alarmed about the men 
at Washington. 


Burdett Hart. 





DISCOURSE 


Proverbs xxii, 28. 

Remove not the ancient land-mark, which thy fathers have set. 

The nation has reached an interesting and important crisis. A 
question is soon to be decided, which will affect our policy for ages 
to come, and may determine our destiny as a people. Inattention to 
those coming events whose shadows already fall across our pathway,, 
is neither the part of wisdom nor of justice. * We owe it to our¬ 
selves—we owe it to those who are to follow us—to meet the emer¬ 
gence with the spirit of patriots and of Christians. The last nineteen 
months have furnished materials for a new volume of our history. It 
has been a period of new and intense excitement. The pulse of the 
nation has been quickened. Its heart has throbbed under a strange 
and unnatural agitation. The first cannon that boomed from the 
Rio Bravo awoke an echo on every hill and in every valley of the 
land. Twenty millions of people bent their earnest gaze to the 
southwestern frontier, awaiting in anxious solicitude the events which 
were there transpiring. The Army of Occupation sent to repel any 
invasion of Texan territory which might be attempted, moved upon 
soil which was occupied by the people of Mexico, and over which 
that government then exercised an unresisted jurisdiction. iVctual 
war at once existed. From that time we have followed our trium¬ 
phant armies through a series of successes, unmatched in the annals 
of military heroism. We have seen an officer, whose name was 
almost unknown, who at the early age of eighteen entered the army 
of the United States as a lieutenant of infantry, who in the war of 
1812 and in the Florida campaigns displayed the qualities of heroic 
daring and soldierly science which have since been matured to a per¬ 
fect development, taking the foremost position among the Captains of 
this or any other age. Brave in the hour of danger, humane in the 
moment of victory, kind and courageous in the varied scenes of his 
warrior-life, he possesses the qualities which attract the attention, and 




4 


demand the admiration of mankind. Plain, almost to an excess, in 
his manners and costume, he still commands the homage and confi¬ 
dence of his troops. Impressed with the sentiment of his own 
invincibility, they never waver in the fiercest conflicts, and under 
his guiding genius fresh recruits bear to the battle-field the cool 
courage and unawed spirit of veterans. In the battles of Palo Alto 
and Resaca de la Palma, along the blazing lines at the storming of 
Monterey, and amid the bloody and terrible scenes of Buena Vista, 
he still displays the same fruitfulness of resource and energy in ac¬ 
tion, which distinguish the great commander. His brilliant victories 
have been heralded through the land, and the name, which, nineteen 
months ago, was hardly known and hardly uttered, has been heard on 
every lip, and uttered with all the familiarity of a household word. 
Already he has gathered to his advocacy and support, a vast amount 
of influence and worth, for the highest position in the gift of a free 
people, and at times has seemed likely to unite in harmony the con¬ 
flicting elements which sunder the political world. The warrior- 
chieftains of Europe, dazzled with his deeds and astonished at his 
success, have followed his victorious course with enthusiasm and 
admiration, although in its originality and boldness it has overthrown 
their principles of warfare, and demolished the science which ages 
of experience had treasured. 

On another line of operations, we have seen another officer, already 
distinguished, displaying the highest qualities of a general, and twi¬ 
ning new laurels amid the bays which adorned his brow. Known 
for his gallantry and daring at the battles of Niagara, Chippewa, and 
Queenstown, more than a generation ago, he has shown, in his po¬ 
sition as commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States, a 
grasp of comprehension, and an order of ability and talent unsur¬ 
passed in our own or in earlier times. Marked among all others 
by his commanding presence and soldierly bearing, he unites to his 
external appearance those qualities of heart and mind which com¬ 
mand the pride and confidence of his troops. At the investment of 
Vera Cruz, in the assault of Cerro Gordo, and during the battles 
which preceded the fall of Mexico, so entire and unwavering is the 
trust reposed in his skill and judgment, that the dispatches which 
relate his successive victories seem to be but the transcript of his 
orders which preceded them. Giving his commands as if with the 



5 


intuition of their exact fulfillment, he beholds every officer and soldier 
hasten to his duty, as if with the consciousness of entire success. 
It matters not what the undertaking maybe to which they are called; 
the landing upon a foreign shore, where a determined resistance 
would be fatal; the redaction of a fortress considered impregnable; 
the ascent of a rugged slope, swept by a terrible fire of artillery and 
musketry ; the capture by a force of 6000 men of a capital inhabited 
by a population of 200,000 souls, defended by an army of 30,000 
men, fortified at every point in the strongest manner ; all are alike 
achieved, as though the result had been fully foreknown. Under 
such officers, whose achievements are the subject of discussion in 
every Court of Europe, we have seen the arms of the Republic 
triumphing over every opposition of the enemy, demolishing their 
strong-holds, piercing to the heart of their country, and dictating 
laws in the old palaces of their capital. The armies of Mexico have 
been routed—her generals have been taken prisoners—victory with¬ 
out reverse has attended our progress—the halls of the Montezumas, 
the palaces of Cortez, are occupied by American conquerors. 

And now—standing where we do to-day, and gazing upon it all— 
we are forced to ask, To what does it amount ? what desirable end 
has been gained ? for what shall we give ourselves credit ? above 
all, what is before us ? to what result are we to arrive ? There have 
been brilliant deeds ! Glory, as men call it! Splendid chapters in 
history have been written, as the world’s history goes ! The foe has 
been fought and foiled, and his banners have been trailed in dust and 
dishonor behind the chariots of the victors ! Is that the end of all 
this call to arms and mustering of men ? The United States have 
shown themselves to be no common enemy! the world can see what 
a Republic can accomplish! The old Field Marshals and Generals 
of Prussia, cradled and nurtured amid the shock and smoke of war, 
can see volunteers under a democracy doing the work of the veterans 
of a despot! It will be acknowledged now, beyond all doubt, that 
the military character of our people has not retrograded since the old 
struggles for freedom, and the defense of our cherished rights called 
men from the pursuits of peace to the deeds of the battle-field! Is 
this the object we desired to gain, and was it for this that our armies 
were marched upon soil occupied by another nation ? The resources 
of Mexico are now subject to our disposal in part—her gold can be 


6 


reached—the two millions of dollars which she owed to our citizens 
can be obtained ! Was this the result aimed at, and for this have a 
hundred millions of dollars been lavished, and ten thousand lives been 
offered to the Moloch of War, and wo and anguish been carried to a 
thousand homes and ten thousand hearts ? Military chieftains of 
distinguished ability have been brought prominently before the public 
mind! Already their names are mentioned and begin to be heralded 
forth as rallying-cries for the political conflict, and there is a strong 
probability that, the suffrages of freemen will be demanded to elect 
those to high civil positions, who have manifested their superiority 
in the field! And again it may be impressed upon the mind of the 
nation, that the first requisite for the ruler of a Christian people is to 
be great in the butchery of women and children, and terrible in the 
throwing of bomb-shells and grape-shot! Was this the design of 
the Mexican War, and will our worthy President Polk, whose first 
term of service has not yet elapsed, assure us that this was the con¬ 
trolling motive in his unexplained and mysterious acts ? I trow not. 
For what, then, has this era of conquest been ushered in ? For what 
have the resources of the nation been squandered ? for what has a 
burdensome debt been amassed, which long years of peace cannot 
cancel ? for what have our people been called from their homes and 
the occupations of peace ? for what have our young men been called to 
the hazards of battle ? for what have so many of our noblest sons met 
with an untimely death? for what has the wail of wo arisen in the 
scattered homes of our country ? for what has Mexico been trodden 
by hostile armies, her villages been sacked, her women and children 
been slaughtered, her government been overturned, and the military 
rule of a conqueror been established in her proud and beautiful capi¬ 
tal ? For what, I ask, have all these things transpired ? Is it that 
we may dismember Mexico and appropriate her territory to our own 
use ? Or is it that we may overrun her entire domain and annex the 
whole country to our own ? Is it that we may maintain our honor 
in the sight of the nations, and when that has been done and our claims 
are adjusted, will the armies be recalled to our own soil, and peace 
be restored ? Is it that we may fulfill our destiny as a portion of the 
vaunted Anglo-Saxon race, which is, in the opinion of some, one day 
to rule the world ? Or, are the designs of this war concealed, and 
are we forced thoroughly to study its history, that we may fathom the 
motives which have led to it ? 




.7 

On a former occasion, I gave my views of the causes of the ex¬ 
isting war—views which were not formed without reflection and re¬ 
search. Without longer dwelling upon such considerations, I de¬ 
sire now to present some reasons why this nation should be engaged 
in better enterprises than those which now occupy her resources, 
and be seeking higher objects than are sought in the present conflict. 
I can have no sympathy with those views which represent this war 
as a part of our destiny—as a means for benefiting the world. It 
may benefit the world—I believe it will result in good to Mexico. 
But that is because God overrules the affairs of nations, and because 
He causes the wrath of man to praise Him. I believe that it is a 
war wherein we are guilty—for whose commencement and prosecu¬ 
tion we have no plea which will avail at the great assize which 
is before us. 

It is our duty to be engaged in better enterprises and to seek 
higher objects. 

I. Our former history should teach us better things. Wonderful 
have been God’s dealings with this nation. We were cradled under 
His favoring care and sustained in our weakness by His guardian 
arm. From the old realms of tyranny and wrong He guided our 
fathers to these far and peaceful shores, and when the storm was 
upon the ocean He directed their ships forward in safety to the de¬ 
sired haven, and here spread out a beautiful land in its magnificence 
and glory for their home. Long and well had they battled for free¬ 
dom on the soil that was dear to them, amid the altars where their 
fathers worshiped and by the graves where their hallowed dust was 
sleeping. Thrones were shaken by their might and the fortresses of 
superstition trembled at their assault. But they longed for peace— 
and there they saw before them only the elements of a perpetual 
conflict. With sad hearts they said farewell to the homes that they 
loved, bade adieu to the scenes which were dear to them, forsook the 
friends who had shared in their sorrows and their joys, and commit¬ 
ted their way to God. He pointed them to a shore where freedom 
reigned, and so they spread their canvas to the eastern gales and 
were wafted to these plains, then a still and solemn wilderness. 
Many prayers went up in their behalf which were heard in heaven. 
They were sustained amid all their disasters and troubles by their 
unfaltering faith in Him who is omnipresent. They came from 


8 


many lands. Some were Puritans. They had fought with Crom¬ 
well, before whose mighty genius the power of tyranny quailed, and 
under whose guidance the nation rose to her highest strength. They 
had heard the fierce battle-shouts at Naseby and Marston Moor, and 
mingled with the mailed veterans at Dunbar and Worcester. They 
had sung the old psalms in the determined charge, and seen the 
banners of the kingdom borne down before the invincible might of 
the enthusiastic soldiers of the Commonwealth. They brought with 
them the stern characteristics of those iron times, and on the soil of 
New England transplanted the principles which they had maintained 
at such hazard at home. Others came from the wild glens of Cale¬ 
donia, who had sung the communion-hymn in her mountain temples, 
where the sword of persecution followed them, and had baptized 
their’children in the clear fountains which were afterwards stained 
with their blood. Some had caught the spirit of freedom from the 
beetling cliffs of Wales, others on the mountain crags of Switzer¬ 
land. Some had been nurtured among the vine-clad fields of France, 
and when the tempest of war had swept down upon their lovely 
vales, and their lordly castles and beautiful homes were destroyed, 
they fled to the sunny plains of Carolina, arid there worshiped the 
God of their fathers. Composed of such different people, the vari¬ 
ous portions of the land were united by common principles and com¬ 
mon hopes. They sought for freedom. They worshiped one and 
the same God. United for common defense, cherishing for each 
other a mutual interest and regard, their differences gradually dimin¬ 
ished, and a prevailing harmony was fostered. And when at length, 
in the same cause, these States pledged to each other an entire de¬ 
votion; when they rallied around the illustrious Washington as their 
common leader; when the blood of the South moistened the soil 
of the North, and the sons of the North found their resting-place in 
the graves of the South, then they were linked together in a common 
brotherhood, and became the sharers in a kindred destiny. Wonder¬ 
ful has been our growth ; so that from small beginnings, this nation, 
now two generations old, with its Founders still lingering among us, 
has taken its position among the leading powers of the earth. Pre¬ 
served from intestine commotion, removed from the conflicts which 
have convulsed the older nations, we have moved forward under the 
smiles of Providence, on the career of greatness, unexampled in the 


9 


history of man. God’s hand has been over us for good; and well 
may the people of our States, on this day of our simultaneous and 
united Thanksgiving, bless the great and good Being whose banner 
over us has been a banner of love. I confess that there is a strange- 
ness to our Thanksgiving to-day. With the voice of rejoicing I 
hear a low, sad wail of sorrow. Other such seasons have come in 
times of war. But it was when our armies w r ere defending our 
rights, and we could exult in the justness of our cause. 0 there is 
that in our past history which condemns our position now! Was it 
that we might go forth for conquest; was it that we might cherish the 
lust for dominion ; was it that we might imitate other nations, now 
cursed and smitten of heaven, in their rapacity and plunder, and op¬ 
pression ; was it that we might extend the domain of human bondage, 
that God sifted the nations of the old world, and brought their choicest 
treasures here—that He opened this domain of freedom, and invited 
us to its possession—that He guarded us in our helplessness and pro¬ 
tected us in our danger, and led us to such a distinguished growth, 
and granted us prosperity in every department of government and 
society ? Then is our greatest blessing our heaviest ourse ! Then 
have we reason for mourning rather than thankfulness. 

II. The lessons and warnings from the history of other 
nations should teach us better things. From the far past and from 
what we see in the present, there are instructions which are fitted 
most deeply to impress us, and most solemnly to warn us. We look 
in vain for the empires which once held the sceptre of the world. 
Their name and their glory have passed away, and we see no more 
their memorials under heaven. Ruin has passed over them—their 
capitals have been swept from the earth—their people have been 
scattered or exterminated. A lone column perhaps survives, or a 
solitary mound remains as a monument to others to avoid their folly 
and their doom. Judgment waits for the guilty, and when the cup of 
crime is full, the sword of retribution descends with relentless force. 
Mournful is the fate of those nations, which once stood foremost in 
power and renown ! They grasped for dominion—but it faded from 
their grasp: they were unmindful of that Being, who sits upon the 
throne, and He hurled them down from their greatness. Along the 
track of time, their flitting forms appear as witnesses of the watch¬ 
fulness and justice of God. Where now are those illustrious states. 


10 


which once sent forth their conquering legions to subdue the world f 
Where are Babylon and Nineveh and Tyre and the kingdom of the 
Medes and Persians ? Where are the hosts that yelled at Issus and 
Arbela, and bore the banners of Macedon over the fairest lands of 
the earth ? Where are the empires that clustered around the Med¬ 
iterranean ? Where is the colosal greatness of Rome, and to whose 
hands has passed the sceptre of Charlemagne? Nay, we need not 
revert to the distant past. Some before me can remember the con¬ 
vulsion which in our own times upheaved the thrones of Europe, 
and scattered the diadems of kings like toys at the feet of the con¬ 
queror. There was one to whom power was given to destroy, and 
for a season he seemed to be gifted with almost superhuman might. 
He entered the capitals of the continent as if sovereignty was his 
right. He put the crown upon his own head, and almost claimed for 
himself the attributes of Deity. Yet his dominion was wrested from 
him in a day ; he knelt before the people whom he most abhorred, and 
they sent him, like a miserable culprit, to a barren rock amid the 
ocean, to be lashed by conscience and to mourn in solitude over his 
crimes for which no penalty could atone. There is a country in 
Europe which seems to be the special favorite of nature. Possessing 
a luxuriant soil, her lands produce, almost spontaneously, the rich 
fruits of the tropics, and smile with the profusion of flowers and 
enameled vegetation. Long summers develop the productions of 
the earth to perfection, and the climate is one of the most delight¬ 
ful on the globe. The ocean and sea which surround it are pro¬ 
vided with noble harbors, and its central position adapts it for the 
greatest of commercial nations. Once it was a prosperous and 
powerful state. But to-day Spain stands before us, a monument 
scathed and blasted, to remind us of our duty. She cherished the 
lust for dominion. Her armed warriors flocked to the shores of the 
new world. They descended upon the peaceful people like beasts 
of prey. They ravished the lands from their rightful possessors and 
stormed over them with rapacity and crime and cruelty. Aye, in 
the very capital trodden by our victorious armies to-day, with a 
triumph only equaled by our own, Cortez dethroned her rightful 
monarch, and made the palace of Montezuma the head-quarters of his 
troops. And what was the result ? Those conquests were the ruin 
of Spain. To them the historian traces directly that decline which 


il 


lias caused her power to wane and made her name and character 
contemptible. It was but a few days ago that the leading journal of 
Great Britain made the confession, “ England is poor.” For centu¬ 
ries the Mistress of the seas has been adding conquest to conquest, 
until her possessions girdle the globe and embrace some of its richest 
and most extensive nations. With one hand upon the East, with the 
other she has grasped for the West, and in every zone and in every 
sea has planted her power. Is England better, wealthier, happier, 
for her wide dominion and her commercial and political greatness ? 
Go to her ten thousand squalid homes, where poverty pines and 
want is weeping—go to her crushed and groaning people, galled and 
fretted by the yoke which they can neither endure nor remove—go 
where famine stalks through her borders and the pestilence is waiting 
to receive its dire message—go to her wan and weary workers, who 
toil by day and in the long watches of the night for the pittance which 
can barely sustain them—go where the wretched are wailing and the 
hopeless gaze forward with despair—and there learn what foreign 
conquest brings to the people, and see how national robbery is recom¬ 
pensed ! England is a lesson and a warning to America. Rocking 
to-day as though an earthquake was heaving under her island-home, 
soon to toss her mighty structures from their foundations and whelm 
them in its profound abysses, she admonishes us of our duty, and 
forewarns us, if we disregard it, of our doom. Who can tell how 
soon Great Britain shall be what Rome is, and her royal line shall go 
down to the tomb of the Tarquins ? Thus do the lessons of history 
address us. Are we willing to slight them ? And will we plunge 
forward to that fate which the entire volume of the past assures us 
is as certain, as though it was already revealed ? Are we pointed 
back along the course of empire utterly in vain ? Have all these 
records been preserved, and are they now opened before us only that 
we may regard them as the tales of romance and the writings of 
fiction ? Do we stand on this high position, where our eye can 
glance over the successive states which have issued forth upon the 
theatre of the world, and hasted stormfully across the trembling earth 
and disappeared with only a footprint to mark their passage, that we 
may learn nothing from their fortunes and their fate ? History is a 
great Instructor. The warrior with his mailed followers, battles and 
sieges, the clangor of arms and flaunting banners^ are the most un? 


12 


important part of true history. They are only like the pictured veil 
which covered the Egyptian Isis ; and as the forms which were 
sketched upon it amused the fancy, and thus concealed the goddess, 
so is it too often the case that men pause with the mere records of 
those stirring deeds. But back of those externals is GOD. He is 
the great disposer of events, and history is the record of His ways 
with men. As the astronomical clock, in its little circle of move¬ 
ments, is still true to the mighty revolutions of the celestial orbs, 
so are the laws which controll the petty affairs of kingdoms in per¬ 
fect harmony with the Economy of God’s Providential Government. 
The history of other nations, therefore, brings to us its truthful 
lessons and its solemn warnings. It teaches us that the career of 
conquest is the highway to ruin—that aggressive war and the subju¬ 
gation of others are the sure and speedy means for securing our own 
downfall. 

III. Our true Mission, as a nation, should teach us better things. 
Conquest, the extension of slavery, the development and cultivation 
of the military spirit—these are not the mission for which we were 
designed. This country has not been placed in the van of the na¬ 
tions—the attention of the world has not been directed to our govern¬ 
ment and our institutions—that we might give them an example of 
rapacity and oppression. The world needs no such examples. And 
if we go forward in the career which the past nineteen months have 
opened before us, we shall pervert our powers, misuse our position, 
destroy our true design, and fail to reap the rewards which Provi¬ 
dence is placing before us. As a nation, we are not living for our¬ 
selves alone. That part of our mission which respects ourselves is 
enough to teach us better things. Possessing a territory sufficiently 
ample to be controlled by one central government, we need no addi¬ 
tion to be made to our boundaries. Over this broad land, extending 
from the Lakes to the Gulf, and washed by the waters of either Ocean, 
hundreds of millions of people may one day swarm, exulting in the 
pride and consciousness of freedom. It is an object worthy of our 
efforts to lay broad and deep the foundations for a growing and per¬ 
petual prosperity. Whatever will tend to develop our resources, to 
direct the energies of our people into proper channels, to unite the 
remote portions of the Union by common ties, and to give strength 
and stability to the government, is worthy of the attention and the 


i 





13 


warmest interest of every patriot and Christian. There are great 
enterprises of public utility sufficient to employ all our revenue and 
the labor of every hand. There are educational and moral interests, 
whose advancement calls loudly upon every citizen for his sympathy 
and his influence and his aid. There are mercantile and commer¬ 
cial advantages which require strenuous effort to be gained and most 
wisely employed. There are internal resources which demand ex¬ 
pansion and cultivation far beyond what they have ever received. 
The vast and rich prairie-grounds of the west should be penetrated 
by canals and railroads, so that their teeming productions may be 
transported to the markets of the world, and supply those who are 
now famishing for their want. Our mighty rivers and lakes need to 
be greatly improved; our entire seaboard needs to be rendered se¬ 
cure for our mariners ; and roads of iron should unite the waters of 
the Atlantic and the Pacific, thus making our country the highway 
and the depot for the treasures and productions of Europe and of 
Asia and of the entire world. But why should I speak of these 
things ? Before us is spread the mighty West, with all its unwritten 
history of weal or of wo, and its blessed or terrible influence upon 
the destinies of the globe. Ours is the mission to prepare that rising 
empire for a sublime and worthy destiny ! 0, if there is anything 

which can challenge our fervent prayers and our warmest labors and 
our greatest sacrifices, it is the view which opens before us in the 
prospective history of that immense and soon to be populous region! 
Already its power is felt in our national councils, and soon it will 
controll the policy of the land. The voice of the West will soon be 
heard above the tones of any other portion of the Union. New 
England will be almost forgotten ; the South will hardly be noticed; 
the original States bordering the Atlantic coast will have retired into 
comparative insignificance, when the thronging millions who shall 
people the Western slope of the Alleganies, the broad savannahs 
and prairies of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys, and the eastern 
and western declivities of the Rocky Mountains, to where the surge 
of the Pacific dashes our farthest boundaries, shall arise in their 
might, to command submission to their will! With a spirit nurtured 
to a harmony with the magnitude of their boundless prairies ; with 
the freedom of their ancient forests ; with the majesty of their lofty 
mountains ; with the boldness of their monarch rivers, and with the 



14 


'Calmness of their Pacific Ocean, they shall be a people fitted to rule 
She world. Linked to them by the ties of a common parentage, by loy¬ 
alty to the same government, by our participation in a kindred desti¬ 
ny, we cannot be uninterested in their welfare. Now, in the infancy 
of those States, we can guide their powers and secure their right 
development, so that when in the lapse of ages they take^ the sceptre 
of empire, it will be to rule according to our instructions. Now they 
can be neglected, and ignorance and irreligion and wild barbarism 
will there hold controll, and we shall realize our neglect in the con¬ 
vulsions of our Government, and the wreck of society and the down¬ 
fall of our freedom! I said, we are not living for ourselves alone. 
-Swarming from the tyranny and toil and want of the Old World, thou¬ 
sands upon thousands of its worn and burdened children are escaping 
to our shores, and are here uniting their interests with ours. And 
while we welcome the weary foreigner, his new relations to us de¬ 
mand our labors for his good. Our mission does not respect those 
only who come to us. In many lands there are longing eyes directed 
to these shores—there are hearts’that throb with joy at our success, 
and are saddened at our reverses. Under the frowning despotisms 
of the East, with souls panting for the freedom which the mind de¬ 
mands, they have heard of this land of liberty, and though their eyes 
shall never see it, they will bless God for its existence, and pray for 
its welfare. Upon us indeed is fixed the attention of the world. 


“ New Eugland ! in thy bosom the pilgrims are sleeping, 

’Mid the thanks and the honors of the sons they have blest; 
Land of the free, how the nations are keeping 
Their watch on thy day-star, to guide them to rest!” 


The story of our struggle is told in every Jand—and even in the 
tent of the wandering Arab of the desert, children are taught to revere 
the name of Washington ! It is our mission to be a model nation 
to the world. We are to show what virtue and intelligence and free¬ 
dom and religion can accomplish for a people, so that others shall be 
won to imitate our example and to share in our blessings. This 
cannot be, if we engage in deeds that they delight in—if we enter 


on the career of conquest and oppression. Already we have for¬ 
saken our high position—we have forgotten the teachings of our 
fathers—we have removed the ancient land-mark which they set. 


15 


We are plunging forward, like the nations which have preceded us, 
and there is too much reason to fear that their doom will be ours. A 
speedy return is our only hope. It should be our aim to do good, and 
not evil, in the earth. It is our mission to be the standard-bearers 
of the gospel, to promote God’s kingdom in this alienated and fallen 
world. One design that our fathers had in coming to this land, was 
that they might advance the gospel. The first seal of the colony of 
Massachusetts was an Indian with his bow and quiver, and the motto, 
“Come over and help us.” We should send abroad the Word of 
Life: we should seek to build the temple of the Lord on every heathen 
shore. But how can we fulfill our mission if we become a war-loving 
people ? God said to David, “ Thou shalt not build a house for my 
name ; because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood.” 
Once let us become a nation of aggressors—bent on foreign conquest 
as our permanent policy—and our days of usefulness are ended : 
God will commit the interests of his kingdom to a people better than 
we. It is not for us then to subjugate foreign nations. Higher ob¬ 
jects invite our labor. Worthier enterprises demand our energies. 
We are forgetful of our mission. We are forsaking the ways of our 
fathers. To-day they seem to call upon us to return. It is time 
that peace should once more revisit us. We have already lost our 
character among the nations. The moral power of our example is 
gone. We have forfeited our heritage. We have abused our posi¬ 
tion and wronged ourselves. 

The exhortation of the text is addressed to us to-day with a peculiar 
force : “ Remove not the ancient land-mark, which thy fathers have 
set.” The lessons of wisdom which they left us should be carefully 
pondered. The sacred trust which they committed to us should be 
vigilantly guarded. The old land-mark should remain. Aggressive 
war removes it. Efforts to extend slavery remove it. The passion 
for military glory removes it. The command is, “ Remove not the 
ancient land-mark, which thy fathers have set.” By the memory of 
our early history—the endurance and struggles of our fathers, and 
God 1 ^ blessing upon them—by the lessons and warnings which are 
addressed to us from the mournful records of other nations—by the 
thought of our true mission as a people, we are summoned to engage 
in worthier enterprises, and to seek nobler objects than those which 
the existing war respects. It is too sad to reflect upon, that after all 



16 


which has passed we should come to this. Around us may the na¬ 
tions gather with the bitter taunt, “ How art thou fallen from heaven, 
O Lucifer, son of the morning ! Art thou also become weak as we ! 
Art thou become like unto us !” For us and for themselves may the 
lovers of liberty tremble when they hear that such an era has dawned 
upon the land. 

How happy would it have been for us to have preserved our proper 
position in an age when such changes are transpiring among the 
nations, and such convulsions are agitating the foundations of socie¬ 
ty ! Wherever we turn our eyes, we see the throbbings of an in¬ 
tense excitement, and the foreshadowing of strange and serious 
events. 

Forward to our day the revolving centuries have been speeding. 
The shaking earth now trembles to the tread of the hastening multi¬ 
tudes. The nations are waking up to gigantic enterprises. The 
next gale that sweeps across the Atlantic from the East may bear to 
our ears the crash of demolished empires. Two aged men alone 
steady the reeling thrones of Europe. Their fall, and it hastens on, 
may be the signal for scenes such as the world has never witnessed. 
Thronging men may again stalk over the battle-fields of human free¬ 
dom, and the days of Napoleon, bright with their burning effulgence, 
may pale before the fiercer flaming of the days that are yet to come. 
The antagonistic elements may meet in fearful conflict, and the 
scenes of Austerlitz and Waterloo be forgotten in the more dreadful 
struggle. The vales of Switzerland are now darkened with armed 
bands of her hardy sons, seemingly on the eve of fratricidal con¬ 
flict. Italy is heaving with new and absorbing sentiments, and her 
people are pledging their mutual labors to arrest the insulting forces 
of Austria, and to maintain the freedom of their enlightened Pontiff. 
England stands, pale and breathless, awaiting the issue of events. 
Ireland, poor, oppressed, miserable Ireland, gasps for life, bleeding 
at every pore, bearing wrong with a wonderful meekness, clutched 
in the bony grasp of the unsparing tyrant. France, shaken by the 
elements of discord, is held in check by its aged King, whose death 
may be the signal for another “ reign of Terror.” To-day a hundred 
thousand of her troops bivouac on the plains of Algeria, and the 
Arab forces are watching for their assault. To-day the battle-cry of 
the Cossacks is heard among the vales of Circassia, and the thunder 


17 


of the Russian cannon reverberates along her lofty mountains. And 
thus, over the world, strife and change are upheaving the existing 
structure of society, and new issues are soon to demand the thought 
and struggles of men. The great conflict of principle has com¬ 
menced. A moral warfare, far more important in its effects than 
the mere contests of arms, is summoning forth the energies and the 
resources of the thoughtful and the faithful of every land. Truth and 
error are meeting in mortal combat, and the defense of man’s most 
sacred rights is now to be boldly undertaken. Humanity, crushed 
and bleeding, appeals to the sympathies of the good, and calls aloud 
for their untiring labors. Bowed by want and toil and wo, the 
famishing and anguished turn with imploring voice and streaming 
eyes to those who are more blessed than they, and ask for a pittance 
of charity and the recognition of their brotherhood. 

How dreadful it is to think that at such a period of the world’s 
history, such a nation as our own should be engaged in such a war 
as this with Mexico ! Verily, verily, there are better things than 
this ! It is not for us to degrade ourselves to such unworthy aims 
and objects. From this soil, sacred by the Pilgrims’ footsteps and 
from these altars planted by the Puritans’ prayers, voices of power 
summon us back to our forfeited and forgotten heritage. Far differ¬ 
ent might have been our position. In this land of beauty, and plenty, 
and freedom, we might have peacefully contemplated the heaving sea 
of affairs and been ready to fly to the succor of the needy and op¬ 
pressed : in the enjoyment of our distinguished birthright we might 
have strengthened all that is good and great within our own borders, 
and promoted the great principles of liberty and religion throughout 
the world. Over the broad extent of our widening domain—along 
the deserted war-path and upon the burial-places of a departed race— 
step to step with the onward march of a progressive civilization, we 
might have planted the germs of a nation’s true greatness and glory. 
In other lands, wherever our moral influence extends, we might have 
cheered the sorrowing spirit and animated the struggling and op¬ 
pressed with the hope of better times. 

But now we too are like the nations ! When will other days 
again return—the days of our former glory and happiness ? May 
God speed them, and that right early! May the ancient land-mark 
be no farther removed, and may we still cling to the principles of 
our fathers ! 



18 


♦ 

Yet we have reason for gratitude, and this day of Thanksgiving 
brings with it peculiar obligations to the Father of good. We should 
be thankful that throughout the entire nation there is so thorough an 
aversion and opposition to the Mexican war, and that on all suitable 
times and occasions we may consider it in its true light, and view its 
inconsistency with our institutions and the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
We should be thankful that severer judgments than this have not 
visited us for our sins. We should be thankful that we have not 
been allowed so far to wander from the right way that there is no 
hope that the sacred legacy of our fathers will be transmitted to future 
times. We should be thankful that plenty and health and happiness 
and prosperity are ours—that our homes have not been invaded and 
desolated—that labor has been so abundantly rewarded—that our 
government and the order of society and the means of education and 
the privileges of the Sabbath and the sanctuary have been preserved; 
and above all, that there is yet continued to us the hope of salvation 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 


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